Mice in cab- not from HVAC air entrance

No, if you've ever had a mouse inside your car, you'd know it's not possible to miss. First, they will find any food and tear into it if it's possible. You can't miss those small holes in your ziplocks. They love the nuts in trail mix. Second, they poop everywhere. Tiny poops, but how one little mouse, the size of my thumb can shit 10 times I have no idea. Then they build nests- shred up napkins, etc.

 

Oh I'm familiar with the little fuckers, I do battle every winter. My house is over a century old and no matter what you do you can never fully eliminate them. But I have it pretty well under control these days too. I just think it would be easier to miss the signs in a car, especially one being lived in just due to how dirty those can get from humans as well.

 

Good idea on the console... I've never seen the manual shifter linkage on these trucks... on the auto it's a small cable feedthrough, no gaps. I would assume there's some sort of boot or bushing in the tunnel for the manual shifter feedthrough, but if not (of if it's torn or popped out of place), that's almost certainly your problem. There is clear passage beneath the console to the firewall and down to the floorboards. And the shifter's smack-dab in the middle of the primary mouse expressway under your truck.

Also, given that your front was painted, maybe they simply forgot to pop the antenna feedthrough grommet back into position? In my limited experience with collision repairs, the car always comes back with half the clips missing or broken, and a lot more wind noise from loose seals. Anyway, I think you can catch glimpse of the antenna grommet from the inside of the truck, not certain, but I'd try pulling the kickpanel and dropping the glovebox first. Might wind up at the chiropractor going full-exorcist on your neck, but somehow that seems better than pulling the pain-in-the-ass wheel well liner just to find out the antenna plug was perfectly fine.

 

Ok, here's an update. And as of now, I'm happy.

I pulled the glovebox and you can see the antenna wire. I could just barely get my hand in to grab it, and when I moved it in and out, there was plenty of movement and I could hear the grommet hitting the sheetmetal; the grommet was not in place. To confirm, I was able to get a finger in, touch the entry hole in the sheetmetal, and the grommet was definitely not in place. I don't know if it wasn't properly replaced when the bodywork was done on the front end (10+ years ago) or if a mouse spent all nite prying it out, but it wasn't in place, at all; not even partially. I was able to pull it back into place by pulling on the wire, and it does seem secure, and I think it's all good; but I also want to remove the fender liner and verify 100% all is good, that the grommet doesn't have holes in it.... And then to silicone it into place.

So, how do you remove the fender liner? I see a bunch of clips and screws on the outside of where it connects to the fender, no issue. And then there are some clips? (no screws, just flat heads) that attach it to the inner fender. Do the inner fender clips just pry out of the metal inner fender? I am not going to tackle this today, it's a job for another day, but I'd appreciate the feedback.

 

There’s usually a bunch of square peg type clips that go to the inner fender sheet metal and then it usually screws into similar square pegs mounted on the fender flare. Having a clip removal tool helps and you can get the replacement square peg type clips off Amazon cause they will likely break during removal.

edit: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fender-liner-removal-how-to.454777/

 

Thanks for the link. I didn't think I'd need to remove the flares, so glad to hear that. I have all sorts of trim clip tools, so I'm ready as far as tools. But yeah, even with all the tools, the clips often break.

 

instead of keeping them out I found more success in traps instead, get one of those walk the plank traps and a bucket and ramp and keep some peanut butter on the end of the trap and in they go, for disposal just wait for a stray cat to wander by.

 

Super gross thread. I hope none of you gets the plague.

Also, mice can definitely get into an Outback.

 

I removed the fender liner, well, the rear half of it. The round headed square body clips are nearly impossible to break without removing them. And I have all the tools. They are 10X more tenacious than any other clip I've experienced. So, if you plan to remove the liner, order all of the clips ahead of time; I think 90% of that one type broke, and there are a bunch of them. I ordered some generic replacements on Ebay and am still waiting on the round head square body ones, which are the main ones that retain the liner. I had some other clips that are installed right now, and they work fine. I glued the grommet back into place, filled the recess with silicone, and covered the grommet with some real duct tape (foil type). So hopefully it'll last. I camped 4 nites last week in it and no mice, but also in an area where I've only had one mouse in maybe 50 nites, so it's not exactly the best test.
Oh, there was no damage to the grommet, it was just popped out of place. I was able to pull it back in from inside the cab, as I said, but I wanted to verify that it was still good, and to do more to keep it in place.

 

We just went thru this with my wife's Toyota iM. Went thru the whole car. Nest in the spare tire area and under the front cawl. Added mouse blocker to the car. Connect's directly to battery. Hope of keep them out for good.